Sidney Kaide, a Hilo man whose family won a public struggle to change a state law so his wife could live in the same care home as him, has died.

Kaide, 89, died Nov. 22 but was able to spend his last seven months with his wife of 63 years, Terry, after being separated for two years by a state regulation on residential care homes.

Terry Kaide, 87, and her daughters waged a battle with the state Department of Human Services, which resulted in lawmakers this year changing the law that had prevented the Kaides and others like them from living together.

"The day my mom got to move in, we had a celebration for them," said Gale Sakaguchi, one of the Kaides' daughters. "His eyes were tearing and you could tell he was crying."

Sidney Kaide, who had dementia and had suffered a stoke that left him paralyzed, lived in one residential care home and his wife had to live in another residential care home that was 12 miles away in Hilo.

Under the old law, a community care foster home could have no more than one private-pay, non-Medicaid client, such as Kaide or his wife. The intent of the law was to give preference to low-income patients.

The new law allows married couples, reciprocal beneficiaries, siblings and the parents of a child, or best friends, to live in the same care home. However, the law is set to expire in 2011 unless lawmakers extend it.

"I think my mom takes comfort knowing that she had time with him," Sakaguchi said. "We didn't expect him to leave us this soon."

Her father, a former general contractor who built homes in Hilo, had been ill since a suffering a stroke in 2003. The family members — Sakaguchi and sisters Charlotte Kaide of California and Annette Kaide of Kona — were in town to celebrate Thanksgiving. They held funeral services for Sidney Kaide on Nov. 28, Sakaguchi said.

Kaide is survived by his wife, his three daughters and three grandchildren.